blue haired princess
by Ju5t An0th3r H3d63h06
Summary: or the one where Solana is the daughter of Keith and Kate and the reigning princess of Fiore, Percy and Leilani make less-than-brief-cameos, Luana can actually cook, and Lunick is...well...Lunick. —au, possibly multichapter.


**a/n: Publishing before the school trip, yes I am. (****Don't tell my English teacher, but I secretly just edited this and submitted it to her for my assignment on the life of royalty. :3)**

**This will be expanded. Sometime. I think.**

**Disclaimer: UM NO THANKS.**

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_blue haired princess_

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"ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR! TIME IS TICKING, TI-TIME IS TICKING-"

The pop song issues at top volume from the speakers of Princess Solana's bedroom, and she inwardly regrets hooking her phone up to the intercom system to ensure she makes it in time for morning classes. Ears ringing to the tune of Epik High's latest hit, she flings off her covers and unplugs the fully-charged phone from the intercom jack. The song stops mid-chorus (which is probably a good thing, any longer and she would have gone deaf) and the reigning princess of the Fiore kingdom drops the phone and staggers back to her bed, flopping ungracefully across it.

"I really should clean this," mutters the girl, staring out at the abyss that is her bedroom floor. A giant stuffed-animal panda, a half-finished Lego model of the Krokka Tunnel, and a laptop with various Time Gear stickers pasted onto its outer casing are only some of the things that frequent the young royal's floor.

"Yes, you should," says a voice from behind her.

Solana groans. "Aw, Mom…"

Queen Kate glares down at her daughter with a piercing cerulean gaze. "You should also stop waking the rest of the castle with your alarms every morning. Interesting song choice, by the way," she adds, placing a freshly ironed school uniform on Solana's desk chair. "Especially considering the fact that time really is ticking and you're going to be late."

Solana rolls off the bed and finds the Galaxy SIII she dropped. It begins to blare again, and she belatedly realizes she accidentally pressed snooze instead of dismiss. The time scroll reads 8: 07, and Solari shoots upright with an undignified yelp.

"Ahhh! Mom, I have like 10 minutes!"

The queen shakes her head at her frazzled daughter with a rueful grin. "I asked Luana to make pancakes and set aside a hot tray for you. Also, I don't know how your friend Leilani got ahold of a ferry or whether said method was even legal, but she just called to let you know she's waiting at the pier. That gives you five minutes to dress and another five to hightail it to Fall Harbor."

"I love you, Mom." The teenage royal quickly hugs her mother before going into full-on rush mode, scooping her black comforter off the floor and expertly making her bed on the bottom bunk. The Time Gear laptop and a few pencils are tossed into the black messenger bag hanging on the bunk bed. Grabbing a brush and her school uniform, Solana deftly avoids the Legos on the floor as she dashes towards the shower.

Queen Kate blinks after the whirlwind that was her previously lethargic daughter and carefully backs out of the room.

Barely five minutes later, Solana wrangles her electric-blue hair into a slightly more manageable upside-down ponytail, looking for all the world like just another slightly offbeat student in the forest-green jacket, black shirt, royal-blue tie, and denim shorts that make up the Summerland Academy uniform. She yanks on a pair of tall black combat boots and laces them up with practiced fingers, leaping up as soon as she's done and rushing out of her room. Sliding easily down the banister of Fall Castle's main stairwell, she rounds the corner and heads for the doors.

"Breakfast!" yells Luana from the kitchen, and Solana calls a "thank you" in the relative direction of the chef as she reverses direction to pick up the neatly wrapped tray of pancakes. A syrup container, a fork, two muffins, and a bottled caramel frappe also go into her (apparently bottomless) punk pin-laden messenger bag.

"Late for your first day?" chides Luana after Solana's retreating back.

Solana winces at the slightly scolding tone. "Um…"

"Oh, just leave already," orders Luana, but Solana detects a hint of amusement in the older woman's voice as she is pushed out of the main hallway.

The brisk morning air smacks Solana hard in the face as she crashes through the doors of Fall Castle, causing her to shiver slightly and wish for a scarf. The capital city of the Fiore kingdom is a popular place for any and all chilly breezes to frequent. However, it's not as bad as the permanent icicle that is the city of Winter, a fact that Solana is incredibly grateful for as she runs in the direction of Fall Pier. Wintown and the Melody Islands (Dolcet, Renbow, Mitonga, Faldera, Sophian, Latuya, and Tilikule) are part of the Oblivia Kingdom, a frigid place Solana would much rather avoid. Unfortunately, she'll be forced to face her twin distastes of cold and planes when she visits this summer.

"Yay, diplomacy," mutters Solana to herself, inwardly groaning as she recalls her parents' words about alliances and armies and the arranged marriage that is apparently going to happen this summer. She shivers again, and this time it's not just from the cold.

"Sooooooooul!"

Solana is abruptly yanked out of her grim musings by a familiar voice. She squints at the wildly-waving white-haired girl perched on the railing of a small speedboat. "…Lei?"

"Soul! Finally!" Leilani grins at her best friend, also decked out in full uniform regalia. "Perce here was thinking we should bail because he had to return this boat, like, yesterday."

"Seriously, this isn't mine!" protests the redheaded boy clad in camouflage capris and a white tank top. "You two owe me big time for this, you know."

"Or I could pay you in muffins," offers Solana, extending the baked good as a peace offering.

"SOLANA, YOU ARE THE BEST."

"Shut up, you!" hisses Leilani as she punches her best friend in the arm. "She's Soul now, remember?"

"We're still in Fall City, though!" retorts Percy, rubbing his arm where the bleach-blond girl had punched him. "And that hurt!"

Solana shakes her head at her two best friends with a grin. "My last year in Summerland Academy and things haven't changed a bit."

"Blame Leilani," mumbles Percy through a mouthful of muffin.

The white-haired girl levels a glare at the redhead as she whips the boat around and steers it easily through the waves. "And who, exactly, is hauling your sorry butt to Summerland? Mind you, _Island Rangers-in-training_ are supposed to be the ones able to operate ferries."

"I crashed ONE TIME!" yells Percy, outraged. "Stop acting like you haven't done worse!"

The two continue to bicker as the boat cuts through the ocean surrounding the temperate Fall City mainland. Solana rolls her eyes good-naturedly at her friends as she sits cross-legged on the deck, carefully unwrapping her pancakes and taking a bite. They're delicious, and she clears the plate easily without spilling a drop—an impressive feat considering she's on a mobile speedboat.

Leilani slows the boat and docks neatly at the pier with a satisfied smirk in Percy's direction. The redhead groans and directs a glance at Solana.

"Soul, help me. She's going to be an Island Ranger next year and totally show me up."

Solana laughs. "Hey, leave me out of this. Lei's wanted to be an Island Ranger since she was five."

"See?" Leilani shrugs. "Even Solan-"

"Soul," corrects Solana automatically. Although she can technically go to school as Princess Solari, she prefers a normal school life to walking around with hulking guards surrounding her. (She does have a bodyguard located within the school, but his identity is a carefully-guarded secret, even from her.) So for the duration of her Academy life, Solana has become "Soul", a regular high school student who lives in Fall City and rides speedboats of questionable ethics to school.

"Right, sorry. Soul," Leilani corrects herself, stepping off the deck and tugging at her dark skirt. She squints sideways at Solana. "…Is that the boys' uniform?"

"Noooooooo, of course not…" Solana trails off as Leilani stares pointedly at her shorts. "Okay, maybe it is, but I really dislike skirts. I barely even consent to the dresses I have to wear for public appearances."

"Classic Soul, headed for trouble on the first day of twelfth grade," sighs Percy. "Try to stay on Mr. Lamont's good side this year, hey?"

"I _am_ on his good side," says Solana defensively. "He has chocolate-chip cookies and milk waiting when I get to his office."

Percy puts a hand to his face.

"Now do you see my pain?" asks Leilani, only half joking. "This is our future ruler. This is also what I have to deal with in every class. You're lucky you graduated last year, Percy."

"Not really. I'm late for my first day of on-the-job training as an actual person. Now everyone will still consider me the newbie."

"They'll dock you for that," says Leilani.

Solana groans, as does Percy. Like most of the other Island Rangers, her camouflage-clad friend is learning the ropes of maintaining the delicate balance between humans and nature through doing actual work on Summerland in lieu of classrooms and textbooks. Naturally, this involves the Summerland Docks, hence Leilani's extremely bad pun.

"Speaking of, aren't you guys going to be late?" Percy yanks a waterproofed Droid from his pocket and checks the time. "Classes start in three minutes."

"WHAT?" yells Leilani. "Crap! Run, Solana!"

The electric-blue-haired girl complies, dashing off the pier. Her combat boots pound against the raised wooden walkways, and houses mounted atop their own miniature islands blur into a single colorful streak as she sprints for the school located precisely in the middle of the island-based city. Soon enough, a red brick building comes into view, and Solana slows to catch her breath, hands on her knees as she bends over.

Leilani catches up, swiping bleached-white locks out of her eyes and leveling an amber gaze at her friend. "We have Miss Haruka for homeroom. Keep running."

Solana sucks in great gulps of air as she starts jogging again. "We've got two minutes until the warning bell. Might as well give up."

"Or not," replies Leilani cheerfully, ever the optimist. "Remember the shortcuts?"

Solana brightens. "Oh, I forgot about the back stairs!"

"See? There you go. Two minutes are no problem for us."

The two girls continue their journey towards Summerland Academy, reaching the tall building in record time. The ceramic fountain in front of the sprawling structure is in full flow, and seagulls are taking turns poking their beaks into the water hoping for fish or shiny objects. The courtyard, usually crammed with students, is deserted, and Solari takes this as a bad sign as she scans the right side for the hidden staircase that connects directly to the West Wing.

"There!" Leilani points, and Solana sees the stairwell, directly underneath a swirling patch of ivy that adorns much of the Academy's brick wall. She and her best friend quickly head over and lift up a patch of the thick vine, hoping no one has discovered the disused staircase and blocked it up over the summer holidays. Thankfully, the stairwell is still there in all its undiscovered glory, and Solana and Leilani breathe twin sighs of relief as they rush up the tightly wound stairs. A mere fifteen seconds later, the disguised princess and her best friend emerge into the packed second-floor hallway.

"Aw, crud," mutters Solana, digging the schedule she'd received two weeks ago out of her messenger bag. "How are we supposed to find room 218 in this mess?"

"I don't know, but we've got exactly sixty seconds to get there," replies Leilani as she stands on tiptoe above the crowd, attempting to see the room number of the class directly across from them. The hallways are filled with people, and Solana is vaguely reminded of the first time she'd faced the Summerland Academy pre-class rush. _Funny, it looked a lot more threatening…_

"Forty-five seconds!" Leilani snaps her fingers in front of Solana's face, effectively yanking the shorter girl out of her reminiscing. "It's this way!" She nimbly ducks into the hallway crowd, and Solana hurries to catch up, dodging textbooks and elbows as she follows the bleach-headed girl to homeroom.

As it turns out, the dreaded Miss Haruka isn't so terrible. _Except_ when you arrive a few seconds after the late bell and collapse exaggeratedly on the floor like you've just run a marathon.

Needless to say, Solana receives a blistering lecture on "not acting like a total BARBARIAN, especially when you're LATE" and an all-too-familiar soft pink late slip. Leilani, two seconds ahead of her, also receives a pink slip, but without the lecture. The two girls back out of the class and head in the direction of the principal's office.

"It's the first day of school," fumes Solana as she stalks down the hall. "You couldn't give us TWO SECONDS?!"

"Well, technically, she only gave YOU the pink slip because you fell on the floor."

"Do you know how exhausting fighting through these hallways are?" For emphasis, Solana sweeps her arms across the hallways, belatedly realizing that they're completely empty.

Leilani glances around pointedly.

"Well, they _were_ full," protests Solana weakly.

The two high school students mock-bicker all the way down the familiar white-walled hallways, stopping only at the brown door with the "Principal Lamont" nameplate welded onto it.

"So, how does this whole 'going-to-the-principal's office' thing work?" asks Leilani jokingly. "You should know, you've been here enough…"

"Oh, can it, you," responds Solana with a rueful grin as she knocks on the door.

The principal, a tall man with a shock of gray hair and a neatly trimmed moustache and beard, opens up the office door. When he sees who it is, he sighs resignedly. "Come in, Soul."

Solana lets herself into the office, taking a seat on one of the dark cushioned chairs in front of the desk. Leilani follows a bit uncertainly.

"Now, Soul. To what do I owe my first visitor of the year?" Principal Lamont, more commonly known as Mr. L, sits heavily in the chair behind his desk, opening a drawer and taking out a pack of Oreos. Like most of the adults in the school, he has no idea of Solana's double life.

"Being late?" offers Solana, holding out her late slip. "Leilani got in trouble too, but it was my fault, so you can let her go. I'll do detention on my own."

"You don't have to do that," whispers Leilani to her friend.

"Still, this whole thing kinda _was_ my fault," mutters Solana back.

The principal sighs and runs a hand through his graying hair. "It's the first day of school, so I think I'm justified in letting you off with a warning. But please, for the love of all that is good and holy, refrain from being late to your homeroom class."

"Yay! Thanks, Mr. L!" cheers Solana, grabbing two Oreos as she proceeds to drag Leilani out of the room.

"Soul, you're out of uniform!" calls the principal after the two, but Solana and Leilani are gone. With a sigh, Principal Lamont retreats back into his office.

"All clear!" whispers Solana from behind a potted plant as she watches the principal go.

Leilani sighs as she emerges from its twin across the hall. "You go through this every morning?"

"Not _every_ morning!" protests Solana.

The other girl shakes her head, bleached spikes of hair floating around her face as she does so. "Wow. Okay. Let's just head to second period, 'cause homeroom's almost over anyway."

As if on cue, the school bell rings, and students flood out of classroom doors all down the hallway. Solana doesn't bother going back to ditch her textbooks, knowing the hallway near her locker will probably be a disaster area. Instead, she waves goodbye to Leilani, who has history with Miss April, and heads down the side hallway in the direction of the gymnasium, where she is greeted with the bellow of the gym instructor.

"SOUL! HIT THE CHANGING ROOM, NOW!"

Solana heaves a sigh and heads in the direction of the girls' locker rooms, where she dumps her messenger bag in her locker and yanks on her gym uniform.

"Some things never change," she mutters as she ties her sneakers.

The girl next to her groans. "Ugh, tell me about it."

The rest of the school day passes in a blur for Solana. There is some type of diagnostic test in Math, a staggeringly long reading list in English, a class activity that was intended to introduce Economics but mostly involved a lot of candy, and a new French teacher.

"Apparently, French is synonymous with Defense Against the Dark Arts," explains Leilani as she inhales a grilled cheese during lunch, the only other period she and Solana share besides homeroom.

Solana stares blankly at her friend, completely missing the reference. "Huh?"

Leilani sighs. "Girl, we have GOT to hold a marathon _Harry Potter_-watching session."

At long last, three o'clock arrives, and Solana dashes out of Lab like something burnt her. (Which wouldn't be an uncommon occurrence, considering her complete lack of skill in Chemistry.) She heads to her locker at a speed that would make a Ferrari jealous, accidentally plowing into someone on the way. The person remains upright, but the disguised royal and her textbooks go flying.

"Sorry about that," blurts Solana, wincing as she accepts the hand someone is holding out and gets to her feet.

"Where's the fire?" asks the dark-haired guy who helped her up, looking slightly amused as he hands Solana her messenger bag.

"Probably at my station in Lab," sighs Solana as she accepts it.

The guy looks martyred. "Why does no one like my favorite subject?"

"Because Lunick is a dork," replies one of his friends.

"This coming from someone failing Gym," counters Lunick easily, and the conversation immediately degenerates into childish arguing. Solana stifles a snicker as she scoops the rest of her books from the floor and heads in the direction of her locker.

"Bye, blue-haired girl!" calls Lunick in her direction.

"Soul!" replies Solana over her shoulder, not skipping a beat. "Nice running into you!"

Leilani joins up with her at the end of the hallway, and the two girls follow the rest of the students streaming out into the main courtyard. Some students are parked under trees doing homework. Others are sitting on the benches scattered around the fountain, watching people throw pennies in. A small group of students waits at the front gate for friends or family members to arrive. Since Summerland is essentially a giant collection of islands with pier bridges connecting them, the main forms of transport are speedboats like the one Solana rides from Fall City every morning.

Solana joins the crowd at the front gate, squinting against the glare of the sun off the waves as she watches for the camouflage pattern of the Island Rangers' speedboats.

"You see Perce?" Leilani asks as she unzips her coat, leaving it hanging loosely on her shoulders. She knows better than to take it off, though—the fall weather is fickle, and one chilly breeze too many will leave her with a cold.

"I think that's him," says Solana, pointing. True to form, their red-haired friend is commandeering an Island Ranger speedboat. Solana waves and heads in his direction, Leilani right behind her.

"Told you I can dock perfectly," says the redheaded Island-Ranger-in-training, smirking at Leilani as she and Solana climb aboard the ship.

"Oh, please," retorts Leilani.

Solana rolls her eyes as her friends continue their argument right where they left off, instead opting to crack open her history book and get started on the 10-page reading. Neither she nor her friends have ever been prone to seasickness, a fact that the young royal is incredibly grateful for as she scans the pages for something that might pop up in a surprise quiz.

"Solana!" Percy's voice snaps Solana out of study mode, and she looks up from her spot on the deck.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Leilani and I were gonna head back to Summerland for the opening of the Fall Festival tonight. You gonna be there?"

Solana gives her friend a dry look. "You can't be serious." As the princess and sole heir to the Fiore Kingdom, one of Solana's duties is to appear at public events and the like. After her sixteenth birthday, the teenage princess was granted the right to open ceremonies on her own—just as well, because the King and Queen are traveling to the kingdom of Oblivia for a fortnight in preparation for their visit this summer and have entrusted her with tonight's responsibility: the Fall Festival held annually on Summerland.

"As Soul, not Solana," snorts Percy.

"Oh." Solana blinks.

"Well, are you?" demands Leilani, obviously wanting the answer.

"I don't know…" sighs Solana, closing the history book and accepting that no more studying is going to happen. "I'm worried about the opening ceremony. What if I flub it? I know Mom and Dad will be there in disguise, they wanted to see my opening before they left, but what if I screw it all up? And even if I don't, someone could manage to see through my Soul persona and try to take me out…"

"That's what's been eating at you all day, huh?" says Leilani sympathetically.

Solana nods miserably, and her bleach-haired friend crosses the small deck to sit next to her.

"Listen, Solana, you're gonna be fine. Your speech will be brilliant, and everyone will love it, and then you'll feel dumb for worrying. And afterwards, you'll change out of whatever fancy dress you've undoubtedly been forced into in favor of your Soul outfit, and we can walk the festival together and get some of those fantastic bean buns."

"You have an unhealthy obsession with those things," mutters Percy in an undertone.

"What was that?" asks Leilani dangerously.

"Nothing," says the redhead, quickly facing forward again.

"Thought so," replies Leilani with a satisfied smirk.

Solana laughs. Worries temporarily banished to the darkest corners of her mind, she heads to the railing of the boat, letting the salty spray tickle her face and the Fiore winds whip the ponytail out of her hair. In this moment, she is not _Solana who has to open for the Fall Festival tonight _or _Soul who has to finish her homework and stop getting pink slips,_ she is just _herself._ And as Fall City approaches in the distance, she thinks that maybe, just maybe, this is what true happiness feels like.

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-fin.


End file.
